One or more Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) may be included in a single panel. Prior art PCB production systems have dedicated Automatic Optical Inspection (AOI) systems that are separated from printing systems. The prior art PCB manufacturing process may include: (i) inspection of a PCB by an AOI system (ii) PCB cleaning and surface preparation; (iii) solder mask coating by a dedicated printing machine (which can either be done by silk screen printing (photo image able or not), curtain coating or spray coating (photo image able)), (iv) Tack free curing; (v) UV exposure; (vi) solder mask development; (vii) solder mask inspection (by a dedicated system); and (viii) final curing.
This process requires many panel handling form various different systems such as the AOIs, cleaning equipment, solder mask deposition equipment etc., thus increasing significantly handling related defects which reduce the production line yield.